


Cuteness Kills

by Shachaai



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Christmas nonsense, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-24 20:49:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19731511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shachaai/pseuds/Shachaai
Summary: Liechtenstein has a crisis over cute ornaments, and a confused Switzerland saves the day.





	Cuteness Kills

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from my tumblr.

The little carved wood bunny rabbit ornament is _so cute._ It has a green-and-red tartan bow and a bell around its neck, with tiny glossy black eyes and a poof of wool for its tail. It fits perfectly into Liechtenstein’s mittened palm when she picks it up from the stall, solid wood all the way through, and the loop of string attached to it so that someone may hang it from their tree spills out over the side of her hand. Underneath its varnish, someone has given it a little pink nose.

It’s _so cute;_ Liechtenstein is going to cry. The stall-owner at the Christmas market doesn’t take cards but Liechtenstein has just enough physical money left in her purse to buy the bunny if she wants it - and she _does_ want it. The bunny is so cute Liechtenstein almost feels like she is vibrating with her love for it and Switzerland, who has gone to get them hot chocolate, will find her amidst the busy crowds again by the high pitch of her delight - but there is a _problem._

In Liechtenstein’s _other_ mittened hand is an ornament from the same stall shaped like a hedgehog, and the hedgehog is _just as cute_ as the bunny. Like the bunny, the hedgehog is carved of wood and has little black eyes and a little black nose under its varnish, and its back is studded with little sharp quills whilst a tiny little tartan bow-tie has been stuck under its chin.

Liechtenstein only has enough money on her to buy _one_ of them. She could, she supposes, buy one, go to the nearest cash dispenser and come back and buy the other - but if she puts one down, surely someone will come along and buy it before she has the time to come back? The ornaments are too adorable _not_ to be bought immediately! And and _and_ the ornaments are so sweet, equally sweet! Which one could she bring herself to buy _first,_ knowing in her heart she might be sacrificing her chance with the second?

The indecision is _terrible.  
_

“Liech?” Switzerland has found her again, a steaming cup of hot chocolate in either of his hands and his face twisting up into a frown that _looks_ fierce but just means he’s a little confused. It clears some of the crowds around him and Liechtenstein a little, at least, though Liechtenstein feels a little like frowning herself at everybody who takes one look at her kind big brother and thinks he’s scary. He’s wearing a bobble-hat that _she_ knitted him, his hair all frizzy underneath. “Have you been at this same stall since I left?”

That had been fifteen minutes ago, and Liechtenstein _has._

“They’re both _so cute,_ ” she says mournfully, and holds out her upturned mittens so that Switzerland can see the bunny rabbit ornament in one and the hedgehog in the other.

“…Yes,” Switzerland agrees slowly, because he never does disagree when Liechtenstein tells him something is adorable. “You want to buy them?”

“I can only afford to buy _one,_ ” Liechtenstein laments, too caught up in the way the market’s Christmas lights are twinkling in the shiny eyes of both the bunny and the hedgehog. They’d look _perfect_ on her own tree, and be so happy together. “How can I choose?”

“You can’t come back with more money and get the other one?”

Liechtenstein’s lower lip wobbles. “What if someone buys the other one while I’m away?”

Switzerland sighs at her, and _yes!_ Liechtenstein knows it’s a bit silly to be stuck standing at one stall in the market for fifteen minutes - at her age! - because she cannot choose between two cute Christmas tree ornaments, but they are both so _very, very cute._

“My wallet’s in the front pocket of my jeans,” Switzerland says eventually, raising the cups of hot chocolate he’s holding in demonstration of why he cannot currently reach for said wallet himself. He looks away from her, at all the other little wooden ornaments on the stall, his cheeks pink from the cold. “Get it, and take the money you need.”

Liechtenstein’s mouth actually falls open a little at that, before she remembers herself, closes it and _beams_ . “ _Schweiz!_ Really?”

“It’s a _Christmas present,_ ” Switzerland insists. “I need to get you things anyway; you don’t need to smile like that -”

Still beaming, Liechtenstein bounces closer to him so that she can kiss him on the cheek, digging Switzerland’s wallet out of the front of his jeans whilst he’s busy spluttering at her. Her brother is _so_ kind; now she can get both the bunny _and_ the hedgehog, and neither will be lonely on her tree. “Thank you!”

“I’m supporting the local economy,” Switzerland says, and Liechtenstein just laughs as she hands both the ornaments and the money to pay for them over to the man behind the stall’s counter - who will probably be glad that Liechtenstein has made up her mind at last (in his favour), giving other customers room to see his wares.

Liechtenstein is vibrating with happiness again, she’s aware; she can see Switzerland looking at her with his pleased-but-confused face on out of the corner of her eye, still holding their hot chocolates.

When she has the little paper bag with her new acquisitions firmly grasped in one mittened hand, Liechtenstein reaches out to take one of the cups. “You’re so kind, Schweiz.” If Liechtenstein could hang _him_ on her tree with her other cute ornaments, she would.

Perhaps she can knit a tiny doll…?


End file.
